CHAPTER XIV. "I KNOW HIM OF OLD."

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 184, 25 December 1886, Page 6

CHAPTER XIV. "I" I KNOW HIM OF OLD."

Tjik day after their return to Paris from Sevres, Lord Leigh had said to Violet, "I hope you will remember to dismiss your embroidery teacher," Violet knew tbat she ■would only put herself in the wrong by resisting:, so she sent Kate with a note, oncloaing five pounds, and saying, " I find 1 cannot t&ke the lessons. I forgot to ask your price. I hope this will pay for the trouble and the material." The second day after, as she was entering her landau, a little boy handed her a note. She opened it, and read : "Lady Lr;rc.ir:-I am sorry that you cannot continue the leahons. It seems hard mat you should hi deprived of such a small indulgence as that. I return £i 103. which you overpaid me. lam not a pauper, but a gentlewomnn if I urn earning my bread, and I did not expea you. would try to make me an object of charity. But I see the world of fashion is all alike. I shall be thinking of this experience while I am oopylnK t one lace patterns at the Hotel dc Chuny, whyre I shall bo bu<jy for the next y, ok. Helen Hope." Violet was much distressed by this note. It seemed to put h-r in the wrong. She felt as if fhe insulted this lonely lady, and her vivid imagination pictured her brooding over her erief, as she worked in the Museum of Antiquities. Why need she insult and pain a sister woman— young;, lonely, and poor? Violet was very sensitive 10 an impliod reproach, and the following day she could not resist going to the Hotel Chuny to find Miss Hope, and beg her not t<_< be hurt, that she had meant no unkindnesa—to try and explain away her sudden change about the lessons. It never occurred to her frank mind that this was what Helen Hope had intended aa a reeult of her note. If Violet had really loved her husband, or felt that ho loved her, she would have recognised the royal authority of love over her actions, ano she would not ha^e reasoned herself into a step contrary to Leigh's wishes. When pho went to the old palace of Chuny, looking from the Hall of the Bath^, bhe paw in a corridor Helen Hope alone, apparently absorbed in copying embroidery. She looked up and bowed in an offended way as the graceful figure of the Countess of Leigh drew near. " I came to find you," said Violet, in her gentle, entreating voice. " I wish to tell you I am sirry if I have hurt your feelings I would not for the world-1 am aeny I cannot—" She stopped, hesitating, for she was never good at explanations, and Miss Rope's cold, imperious grey oyes seemed to be looking her through and through, and BCorching her very soul. " I see. It was your husband who forbade you." " He did not think it was well," bc^an Violet. " That you should see me?' 1 interrupted Miss Hope. <fHe was afraid of what I might tell you. 1 know him of old." " You know my husband ?" cried Violet, started inexpressibly. " Yes, -well. Better than you do, or you would not bo Lady Leigh." "I do not believe it,"' eaid Violet, turning red and pale, " You do believe it. He knew me when he wag engaged to Misa Ambrose— and bofore." "That is an old story," said Violet, feigning indifference, though her heart was in a terrible tumult. " It will never grow old to me," said Miss Hope. " I have watched you two together. You do not care for him, but I loved him ! Oh, you start. You had never heard of me. Yes, Lady Leigh, he has touched my hand, and kissed my lips, and called me by my name, and given me gifta —this very bracelot that I wear ; and now, now he protends to you not to know me j he calls me an adventuress, and forbids my presence near you ! What do you think of that for treachery 1" In her fury Helen Hope had used one of Lord Leigh's very expressions, and it struck

coldly home on Violet's Bonsibiliti-"'. There was jußt enough of living truth in this garblod tale to give it an iuapressiveuess that branded it on the poor little Violet's heart, She had stood rooted to the spot as if hold with a fatal fascination by Helen Hope's voice and eye. Now she started. "lam sorry for you ; but in all this I am helpless " 1 know you are. 1 am the one who should bo sorry for you, fettered to a man who deceives you. Your husband has no very tender heart, Lady Leigh. Once he gave mo flowera and wandered with me alonjr Leigh woods, and now ho would rather see me starve on the streets of Paris than earn bread at your hand." Even as she spoke she searched the lovely flower-like face of the little Countess of Leigh. This morning talk was but the beginning of her plan for vengeance. She was studying her victim. Violet was hor enemy tolely because, in marrying Lord Leigh, &he had unconsciously crossed Helen Hope's passion and ambition. " Hush ! hush ! Do not speak so. Let me help you." "Thanks. I need no help. lam glad I have seen you. I shall always remember you as a sweet creaturo, worthy a better fate. Lady Leigh, you are crying ; drop your veil; people will be staring at you." Violet dropped her veil, and, as one dazed by a heavy blow, she went out into the small, ptill, lovely garden of Chuny, an ancient garden known even in Roman times ; but in all who had walked its rosy shades, perhaps no sadder heart had beat than that of the forlorn heiress of the Ainslios, whoso life had come to such untimely wreck at its opening. The ripple of waters, and the smile of the flowers she loved, could not console her, who, seeking bread of life at a husband's hand, had been given but a stone. She had looked for love, and received only the burnt-out ashes of a dead heart. ******* Tbab evening there was to be a grand ball given by the Due d'Etcile, and Lord Leigh and hia bide were among the chief guests. Violet stood in her dressing-room, before the cheval glaaa, while the skilled hands of Kate arrayed her. But Violet's changeful brown eyes did not regard the exquisite figure that the glass mirrored in a robe of white brocade, the waist covered with a fine network of pearls, ropes of pearls about the smooth neck, and the da'nty dimpled wrists, a airing of pearls wreathed in the dark waves and braids of her shining hair Her eyes were rather fastened mi a bouquet waiting for her on her dressing-table. A white bouquet, snowy heath, and heliotrope, and lilies of the valley, and tiny white rosebuds, all white, and fragrant, and fair as her own sweet self. It had come to her from Kenneth Keith. She trembled, and her heaet beat fast, and her eves filled with bifcter-sweefc toare as she looked at it. 55he was dressed, and went into the drawin^-ioom where Lord Leigh waited, Kate followed her with a satin cloak lined with swansdown. " You look aa a Countees of Leigh Bhould look," paid Lord Leigh, surveying the enchanting fieure with some pride. " But how white you are—nofc alone your drees, but your face is as white as your bouquet." "Lord Kei(h sent me my bouquet," said Violet, trembling. She was resolved that, however leigh might deceive her, on her part all should be thoroughly open and clear. "Did he? Good of him," said Leigh, carelessly. "Didn't know but you had offended him. Keith was always fond of flowers ; had hia room in Oriel College cumbered with a great stand of plants, and new bouquets every day." He gave her his arm and they went down to the carriage, Violet wondering if she should see Keith at the ball. Yes, he was there He came to them soon after they entered the room; and while a buzz ot compliments, a fire of admiring glances followed the charming bride of Leigh, there leaped from Kenneth's eyee one flash of adoring admiration that meant more than all the rest. "Thank you for my bouquet," said Violet, as he came up. "I am glad if you like it. May I aek a danee —two ?" "The first belongs to Lord Leigh," said Violet, timidly. " But they don't all belong to me." said Leigh, in the most matter-of-fact manner. "A man doesn't expect to dance with his wifs all the sets. Certainly, you have a dance for Keith, Violet. Put him down for twp or thiee waltzes. He i8 a wonderful waltzer." Violet took out her tablet, and blindly followed her fate. But the heart of Keith said that, if this pearl of woman was his wife, he would be the man who would wish to dance with hia wife all the sots, and would feel a cruel agony if he saw her whirled away in other arms. Did he not | feel some of that agony as she danced with Leigh ? The gorgeous palace of the Due d'Etoilo was a blaze of light; and the ceilings, frescoed in flowers and figures V>y the hand of masters, vied in glittering splendour with the scene in the great state apartments, where a crowd of the first beauty and fashion walked, danced, and eat amid flowers and perfumes. WJiite jewels gleamed, and choice fabrics shone, and sweet and happy voices rippled on the fragrant air. In all that brilliant assembly, Violet, in hor snowy beauty, witn her guileless face and shy, gentle mien, shone as a bright particular star. Every one inquired about her and admired her, and envied Lord Leigh. Never had her aunt, the Countess Mon* treseor, been so surrounded by a crowd of eager men as now, when this charming btide waa beside her. It 13 not in youth and health to resist such surroundings. Violet loved dancing ; nor httle feet naturally kept time to music ; and now all the splendours that mother on every hand wiled her from herself, and she grow bright and gay • and, for the hour, all those dark figures that had begun to fill the background of her life and intrude upon her silent hours faded out of sight. But it was when ehe danced with Kenneth Keith that joy strangely passed into pain, and \ lolet became pale and still,